Criticize The Better Business Bureau... And They'll Pull Your Accreditation

from the credibility? dept

For many consumers, the Better Business Bureau is considered the authoritative, objective source on whether or not a small business is trustworthy. Most people think of the group as being quite trustworthy itself. But who's the Better Business Bureau for the Better Business Bureau? Josh King alerts us to the news of how an operation called FeeFighters wrote a rather scathing post, claiming that the BBB was a scam, based on the story of one company who -- the article claims -- was able to bump its rating from an "F" to an "A" basically by paying the Better Business Bureau. I have no idea how accurate the report is, but it certainly is damning.

So how does the BBB respond? Does it explain to the FeeFighters how they got something wrong in the story? No. Does it admit to a problem in the process and promise to correct it? No. As far as I can tell, those seem like the only two reasonable responses. But the BBB went in a different direction. It told FeeFighters to take down the post or it would lose its own accreditation. And when FeeFighters refused to do so, the BBB pulled the company's accreditation, and flat out admits that it's because they don't like such criticism.

This seems really quite incredible considering what the Better Business Bureau does: collecting complaints and seeking to get companies to resolve them. And when someone presents a complaint about the BBB itself, rather than trying to resolve the problem... it attacks the messenger and revokes his BBB accreditation. On this one, it seems like the BBB deserves a big fat F until it apologizes and takes back the revocation. Frankly, it's hard to trust BBB ratings at all after this experience.

Reader Comments

Actually, it sounds to me like the BBB is the one who is engaged in "activities that reflect unfavorably on, or adversely affect the public image of the BBB or its Accredited Businesses."

The letter itself certainly reflects unfavorably on the BBB. They are dropping FeeFighter just because they don't like to be questioned about an activity that looks like it really, really needs to be questioned.

The BBB has long lost any credibility

Anyone that has a small amount of intelligence has seen over the years the plain junk on the BBB.

Do a search on their website for work at home and then search on Google or Bing for reviews of any company that shows up. The BBB lets any company that pays get special treatment that involves erasing bad comments if the company responds to any complaint. They don't have to fix the issue just respond.

Additionally, those complaints don't reflect in the company's overall rating.

Re: Re: The BBB has long lost any credibility

YES I TOTALLY AGREE! THEY DO NOT RESOLVE PROBLEMS, AND ONCE THEY RECEIVE THE INFORMATION, YOU MIGHT SAY IT GETS USED AGAINST YOU SO PEOPLE CAN READ WHAT THE ISSUE WAS, AND THEY MAKE IT LIKE A BACK AND FORTH SITUATION AS OPPOSED TO TREATING IT AS THOUGH THE PERSON THAT RECEIVED LESS THAN AVERAGE TREATMENT SHOULD HAVE BEEN EITHER COMPENSATED , WOULD BE OKAY BECAUSE THE PERSON WHO DID IT, DEFENDS AND JUSTIFIES THE BEHAVIOR OF HOW OR WHY THIS INCIDENT OCCURRED.

Part of the Club

Re: Part of the Club

That's some honest to goodness conspiracy theorizin' right there.

So if I understand the website at that link correctly: all imagery of lit torches belongs to and is the work of the Illuminati, and all entities/places that use variants of the word "columbus" (Columbine, Columbia... Columbo?!) in their name are puppets of the Illuminati?

BBB a rip off

I worked for a short while for a company that sold sewing machines. We had a competitor+

I worked for a while for a company that sold and repaired sewing machines. We had a much larger competitor who had an absolutely horrible reputation in the community. They were constantly buying smaller businesses, changing the names on their stores so that it looked like new management, using bait and switch tactics on their customers and offering to repair things that they didn't have a clue how to fix and then offering to trade in the "broken" machine after they couldn't fix it.
However in spite of the fact that people would stop complete strangers from going into the stores and tell them to go elsewhere to shop they had an A+ rating with the BBB.
The way they did this was to keep any disputes submitted to the BBB "in dispute". If you are a paid up member of BBB you can keep disputing any bad reviews till the person gives up. As long as a complaint is being disputed it doesn't show up as a bad review.
I'm now in a different industry but still don't want to piss them off so I'll post anon.

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Or It's Accredited Businesses?

So, you can also lose accreditation by criticizing another "accredited business"? Sounds like the BBB has turned into a protection racket, to me. And I don't mean the good kind of "protection", either.

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BBB is a Scam

Anybody who has dealt with them knows they are a scam. If you are a member in good standing as long as you come to any type of agreement (positive or negative) in regard to a claim it will not count against you.

My personal experience when having a dispute with a BBB accredited agency was comic. The guy was the local chapter president and basically said, "It doesn't matter what we did to your car, or didn't do. This complaint isn't going anywhere because I just don't give a 5hi!." Sure enough, even though we complained up to our attorney general nothing was ever lodged against that business.

Didn't 60 Minutes or another news show recently (last year or 2) do an investigation after someone showed that they were often able to buy A's for any sort of business?
And then they got the head to do his best deer in the headlights I dunno what your talking about, we need to look into this sort of crap?

The BBB seems willing to provide all of the ammunition for their own demise.
We made sure you can't appeal, and out terms clearly state you can never make us look bad - even if what we are doing is bad.
I think Mr. Bernas needs to be fired, he has written a letter that clearly spells out the BBB is vindictive and seems only concerned about looking good rather than doing what they claim they do. That seems to cast them in a bad light.

The BBB once upon a time was a good idea, and then I am willing to bet people with MBAs got hired. The MBAs just want to make more money and often have no interest in what the business is actually doing, just needs to make more revenue at it. Like the stories of some Yelp! employees taking money to hide bad reviews, or demanding gifts etc. You normally have to take these things with a grain of salt because they never give you written proof. This time they put it in writing. Rather than defend the company by showing the allegations to be misleading or false, they confirmed them by trying to crush someone who said something they disliked... but can't seem to prove is false.

Hopefully at the next Board of Directors meeting they will be asking why this moron seems to have no grasp of the Streisand Effect and what would have been a forgettable post on the internet is now given much more credibility by their shortsighted and idiotic response.

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So MBAs are inherently asshats, then?

Businesses without MBAs can all be trusted? But when an MBA rolls in, it all goes to hell?

I don't think a case has been made to prove that assertion, yet. Do you have any citations? Because I've seen douchebag MBAs, and I've seen non-douches. Seems to be a similar cut as the general population.

Re: Re:

MBAs as a whole are just like people. There are good ones and there are bad ones. More often than not when we see a business doing stupid things you can often find an MBA as the source.

While I made a generalization I do stand by the concept I managed to not correctly illustrate.

A prime example would be the article I am currently failing to find again, where the MBAs of Hasbro are making huge missteps with the WOTC side of the company. They do not understand what motivates those players and keep trying to "board game" D&D and MTG and when the head of the division compares a roleplaying game to chess... yeah there are some serious problems understanding the market.

You have people with no clue of how it makes the money, and just think they can crank out more stuff and make more money, leaving the consumer out of the equation. They happen to be MBAs in many cases.

Re: Re: Re:

The BBB is useless. I once filed a complaint against a company. The outcome was this: the BBB said they sent the company a letter. When the company failed to respond, the BBB sent them another letter. When the company failed to respond to that, the BBB told me there was nothing more they could do. Totally useless!

For more than a decade, many of my clients with websites have asked if they should sign up with the BBB to get their logo on their sites for added credibility.

I always tell them that the BBB logo probably hurts more than it helps. The BBB "Pay to Play" business model is well known. Too often I see dodgy websites with a big BBB logo and only PayPal for checkout. When such companies can't even qualify for a merchant account - a prepaid BBB logo only points to their struggle for credibility, and I think most customers understand that.

You will get a lot more mileage (and satisfaction) by posting your complaint on Ripoff Report. The postings are anonymous, the site NEVER takes them down, they don't hand over posters' identity to anyone, the posts are ranked well (and almost immediately) by search engines, and Ripoff Report is virtually immune to litigation.

I don't get mad, I get even. And there is absolutely nothing that the crooked business can do about it. It's nice to level the playing field.

I have always said to anyone looking at BBB reports to "take them with a grain of salt because they are paid endorsements". Some of the review websites are the same also. They are laden with reports that if you visit other sites with reports they almost quote word for word. None of them unless they have over say like 30+ reviews, or reports you can't get good feedback on them.

And then there is JD Powers . . .

They can be bought also. As per a rep that gave an award to a large "media" company that had just be lambasted in the press for having the worst customer service. Next thing ya know they are a JDP Best. This was a while back when you could call people. And I was able to contact the person that approved the award and he told me that "anything can be bought".

Steve J Bernes AKA Pond Scum Bully

Why do so many people think that Chicagoan Steve J Bernes (MDC) of the Better Business Bureau is the biggest bottom feeder in the long list of scumbags to come out of the BBB?

By now most people know that the Better Business Bureau’s history is loaded with some real scumbags. In fact, ABC and 20/20’s Brian Ross exposed these money-grabbers for who they are. That’s right, they are known to have raised businesses’ ratings just because the owners paid up. In one case that was featured on national TV the caller was told that if they pay their company’s rating would be raised from a “C” to an “A”. It was that simple! But is that alone enough to hate bottom feeders like Steve J Bernes? No it’s not, but keep reading.

We also know that the pond scum at the BBB approved the “A” rating of a fake company named after the anti-American terrorism organization Hamas. This group is responsible for the death of many U.S. citizens and yet these scumbags at the BBB gave the bloggers setting up the account an “A” rating just because they forked over a credit card number. How much did the BBB profit from selling out our country? How anti-American can the Better Business be?

So why is Chicago native Steve J Bernes (MDC) in the running as the biggest bottom feeder that lurks behind the Better Business Bureau name? Well, it’s because he is a bully and pond scum that thinks he can control U.S. citizens’ right to free speech. What amendment don’t scumbags like Steve J. Bernes (MDC) at the BBB break? Stop this arrogant pond scum in his tracks by writing and posting your own story as I did. I am retired and I am going to write about nothing else until I hear this scumbag is put out of business or struck by lightning. Let’s see if the latest of these scumbags, Better Business Bureau CEO Mary E. Power (CAE), follows this method of customer satisfaction. Steve J. Bernes: my review stands; you are the biggest scumbag in the long list of BBB scumbags.

Name Correction Steve J Bernas AKA Pond Scum

Why do so many people think that Chicagoan Steve J Bernas (MDC) of the Better Business Bureau is the biggest bottom feeder in the long list of scumbags coming out of the BBB?

By now most people know that the Better Business Bureaus history is loaded with some real scumbags. In fact ABC’s 20/20 Brian Ross exposed these money grabbers raising business ratings just because owners paid. In one case on national TV the caller was told that if they pay they would be raised from an C rating to an A. It was that simple! But is that alone to hate bottom feeders like Steve J Barnas? No it’s not, but keep reading.

We also know that pond scum at the BBB approved the A rating of the anti American terrorism organization Hamas. This group is responsible for the death of many US citizens and yet these scumbags at the BBB gave the bloggers setting up the account an A rating just by forking over their credit card. How much did the BBB profit from selling out our country? How anti American can the Better Business be?

So why is Chicago native Steve J Bernas (MDC) in the running as the biggest bottom feeder that lurks behind the Better Business Bureau name? Well because he is a bully and pond scum that thinks he can control citizen right to free speech. What amendment wont these scumbags like Steve J. Bernas (MDC) at the BBB break? Stop this arrogant pond scum in his tracks by writing and posting your own story as I did. I am retired and I am going to write about nothing else until I here this scumbag is put out of business or struck by lightning. Let’s see if the latest of these scumbags, Better Business Bureau CEO Mary E. Power (CAE) follows this method of customer satisfaction. Steve J. Bernas my review stands; you are the biggest scumbag in the long list of BBB scumbags.

Steve J. Bernas the BBB Scumbag

Why is Chicagoan Steve J. Bernas of the Better Business Bureau getting so much hate mail? Maybe it has to do with the fact that the BBB was exposed by both ABC and a 20/20 investigative report as a for-profit corporation that rewards companies that pay the BBB with higher ratings. A woman with a tiny antique store only had one resolved complaint but the despicable human scum at the BBB refused to change her rating from a “C” to an “A” until she paid up. Once the check cleared the antique store was suddenly an “A+” rated company.

Or maybe Steve J. Bernas of the BBB is so hated as pond scum because of the BBB’s willingness to award an “A” rating to Hamas, a fake company that shares a name with an anti-American terrorist cell. Do you think Steve J. Bernas or the BBB cares that Hamas has killed U.S. soldiers as well as thousands of innocent children?

Why, exactly, is Chicago native and Illinois BBB President Steve J. Bernas at the top of the list when it comes to bottom-feeding pond scum? Could it be because he allows businesses of ill repute to hold A+ ratings? Could it be because millions of registered senior citizen voters are at risk of being taken advantage of thanks to the BBB’s lax policy of handing out “A+” ratings to companies just because they have $400 or a credit card?

It could be all of the above. Thanks to scumbags like Steve J. Bernas and other BBB executives we are all at risk, and as long as he and other pieces of pond scum like him are in charge of the BBB offices around the United States we will never be able to trust any BBB-accredited business.

You can call Steve J. Bernas at (312) 832-0500 and his email address is sbernas@chicago.bbb.org. Let him know that Chicago and the entire United States of America won’t stand for crooked policies that fill the BBB’s coffers while hard-working Americans get the short end of the stick.

BBB of no help whatsoever and sides with company

I hired Meg's Tree Service to cut down one of my trees. Long story short, they looked at the wrong tree, diagnosed the wrong tree, lied about the diagnosis and after chopping down the wrong tree (which had nothing wrong with it and was valued at $1500)I asked for my money back - the value of the tree plus the $620 they charged. The company admitted to making a mistake but would offer me no more than $300 to make me "go away". When I complained to the BBB they told me that Meg's basically said "That's not what happened" and they closed the case. So much for the BBB helping the consumer who's been screwed.

BBB is the biggest scam out there (Better Business Bureau)

You do realize the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a PRIVATE company. Everyone THINKS that it is a government agency. NOPE. THE BBB IS NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY and they do little for anyone out there - business or consumer.

Any business pays their fee and all your bad reviews are wiped out. It's a shake down for small businesses.

comment

I totally agree. The BBB is totally unreliable and seems to be based on whether or not a company has paid them, instead of if they have provided good customer service. Therefore companies no longer need pay any attention to complaints, making the BBB Useless and just another help in Lowering customer service standards.

PAY or else

I have been in business for 30 years and have a steller reputation. A company with a name same as mine 120 miles away but in the same state was cheating the public.I proved to the BBB that was not my business and had no connection with the other business. From that point it was recomended that i join the BBB . Of course I declined to join I have always done well without them and in this economy do not need another bill ,but they wanted money. I went from an A rating to an F rating . They have no feedback good or bad on my business. They have no information at all other than my business name address and phone #. I really believe if I would pay up I would have an A rating . I have a A rating with Angies List they have never tried to B mail me. Would like to see some org really look into the BBB and go at them hard for their practices.

BBB left bad taste in my mouth, Not trustworthy at all

So I joined the BBB thinking that I only had a 52 dollar a month membership fee, turns out it is just a monthly payment for a much larger invoice. No where does the BBB have in writing that it is a 12 month commitment. (I asked several of its employees) I spent 2 hours getting forwarded around to different people saying that they verbally told me of the agreement, and I am waiting on a recording of said verbal communication. So my question is BBB, why so dodgy about the 12 month commitment? Why not put it in writing where everyone can see all the time what they are committing to. No word of it in any email, and in fact no word of it in the accreditation agreement pdf that was sent to me. In fact that agreement says that I have the right to terminate if in writing and within 30 days. But that is only true after the 12 month commitment that is not mentioned.

BBB - is the BIGGEST scam going!!

First the BBB tries to come across as a government agency - they ARE NOT - it's a franchised business. Then IF you pay for Accreditation (only way to get Accreditation) you get an A+ no matter how many complaints you have. They do not help you solve anything. The BBB is basically one online directory - DO NOT PAY FOR it. Google "Complaints against the Better Business Bureau" - scroll past their website results - the ones with bbb.org - maybe past 3 results - and PRESTO!!!! Endless complaints. They are a scam - they claim to be non-profit - yet they make a profit. Screwing our government over as well,.

BBB is a farce

I agree with the other reviewers. If you make a complaint against an A+ rated business which clearly businesses only obtain if they pay BBB for it then they automatically close the complaint altogether. Does it make sense that companies that have an A+ with them have a trash rating on other sites like yelp or google? They are clearly a scam and cannot be relied upon.

BBB is full of lies - not real

I have to agree with these. I own a hotel and had a fake complaint. The BBB refused to remove it. Then another fake complaint. We found out it was competitor. BBB refused to remove the fake reviews. BBB can not be trusted. Agreed BBB is one big scam and pay to play. Very untrustworthy and do not do what they say they do. Warning they only hurt businesses.